Slashdot has a discussion around Magnatune, a recod company with a different business model: Magnatune - a Non-Evil Record Label?

From the Magnatune WWW site:

We call it “try before you buy.” It’s the shareware model applied to music.

Listen to hundreds of MP3′d albums from our artists. Or try our genre-based radio stations.

If you like what you hear, buy our music online for as little as $5 an album or license our music for commercial use.

Artists get a full 50% of the purchase price. And unlike most record labels, our artists keep their rights to their music.

Founded by musicians, for musicians.

No major label connections.

We are not evil.